Friday, May 21, 2010

A few weeks

So, no updates for awhile.

See, I'm a law student. The past several weeks were finals for us. I was a hermit living in the library. Then I was gone for the whole weekend to go visit family. Then I started my summer job this week and have been busy recovering from finals and family visits and a heavy workload.

But all that is over now.

A little about me.

I'm 26. I'm a white male. I grew up in a small town in the southeastern united states. I grew up in a family that believes in God but is mostly quiet about their belief. Not an evangelical family, but a family which taught me the value of faith and the good it can do in a person's life. They also taught me to be critical of those who would tell you how to live your life. That how we choose to live our lives (the key word is choose) is up to each and every one of us. And that no one can make the decisions for us. I firmly believe that. It was a lesson I kept in mind throughout my life. I saw the good that religion can bring into the lives of others. But I also saw the harm it can do. I now have my own personal faith. My own personal understanding of God and of faith. I believe in God. I struggle to understand more about God and God's plan all the time. But I don't go to church. Because I got tired of being told how to live my life - more specifically, I got tired of being held to a higher standard than the people who were lecturing me held themselves to. I do not respect those who wish others to "do as I say, not as I do." Leading by example, I respect.

I'm not really a conservative. I'm not a liberal, either. I don't affiliate myself with either of the two big parties. I self-identify as libertarian although I disagree with the libertarian party on god knows how many things.

I believe in the ideal of freedom. Life, liberty and happiness. Freedom of choice is a big issue with me. But freedom means nothing without responsibility. Freedom of choice means, it necessarily means, freedom to take the consequences of our choices. The thing that bothers me most about today's society is that no one wants to accept the consequences of their choices. No one wants to make a hard choice and have it not work out. And when it doesn't, they don't want to own up to their choices. Everyone, even our best leaders, makes bad decisions. We learn from them. We hope we will make the best choice when it's important. But we don't always. And when it happens that we didn't make the best choice, the most damaging thing we can do is try and sweep it under the rug. When you ignore a problem, it gets worse. Short-term solutions are a big problem. That's what our leaders and, honestly, most people seek in their lives. A way to get themselves into the best position in the short term, the long-term consequences be damned. At best, that's a temporary solution. At worst, it's cosmetic and lets the problem get worse and worse until it can't be fixed anymore.